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(meteorobs) Not a point meteor
Just a note to mention to North American (and possibly Central
and South American) observers that there's currently a brightly
flashing geosynchronous satellite to be aware of so as not to
think it's a point meteor. It's Telstar 401, and for the time
being it's flashing possibly as bright as zero magnitude (+1
for sure) in the southern part of Orion for a while around 8:30
to 9:30 UTC (position and time period vary somewhat depending
on your location). The flashes occur one every 167.8 seconds.
If you see it, the flashes will appear to drift slowly (rate of
.25 degree per minute) from west to east through Orion. From
latitude 30 north it goes a couple of degrees north of Rigel to
just north of the sword and then to the east of the belt (near
if not within Monoceros) before it quits flashing for the night.
It may continue to do this for some time, four minutes earlier
per night.
Congratulations to all who had the good fortune to see Leonids!
There was little to no chance of seeing them in much of Texas
other than the panhandle due to totally cloudy weather. Geminds
-- full Moon. Have high hopes for Quadrantids!
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
http://wwwvms.utexasdot edu/~ecannon/meteorlinks.html
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